DEPTHS OF DISAPPOINTMENT
So much was expected of Eskimos: Jones
As Edmonton sports fans contemplate heading to Commonwealth Stadium for Saturday’s totally meaningless final regular-season home game in a Grey Cup host year, there’s a question to consider here.
Have the fans of Edmonton’s two major pro sports teams, back-toback, just endured the most disappointing seasons in the history of either team?
With the Oilers, in their 39th season last year, it was undeniable.
After the Decade of Darkness — a record-equalling 10 consecutive years missing the playoffs — the Oilers had a 103-point season and went to Game 7 of the Pacific Division Final.
People had the Oilers predicted and projected to be Stanley Cup contenders. But the Oilers couldn’t handle the expectations from the second game of the season a year ago and finished up out of the playoffs 27 points south of where they had been the year before. If they weren’t out of it by Halloween, they certainly were by the Grey Cup.
But in the following football season, with the Eskimos celebrating their 70th anniversary and the 40th year in Commonwealth Stadium with the 106th Grey Cup game being held here, did the Eskimos double down with their most disappointing season in history?
As you get ready to go to the game (or not), think about it.
When the season began, most experts predicted or projected the Calgary Stampeders and the Eskimos finishing one-two.
The Eskimos started the season 5-2 with an offence featuring last year’s Most Outstanding Player Mike Reilly throwing to receivers Duke Williams and Derel Walker who were among the league leaders. The team was No. 2 in the power rankings through to Labour Day.
And they end up the only Western Division team to miss the playoffs. In a Grey Cup host year, how can it get any more disappointing than that?
Seventy seasons are a lot, but Edmonton has been the most successful team in the league since the Eskimos began play in 1949. Of those seasons, the Eskimos have missed the playoffs only 11 times. The Eskimos hold the league record for consecutive playoff appearances at 34.
Your correspondent began covering the club in 1973 and watched the Eskimos make it to the Grey Cup for nine of the first 10 seasons I was on the beat.
There haven’t been many disappointing seasons in there.
The team made it to the Grey Cup in 1952 and won it in 195455-56 with stars Jackie Parker, Normie Kwong, Johnny Bright and Rollie Miles.
Players from that era will tell you the best team they had was in 1957. Those Eskimos lost the West Final. That was the first major disappointment. Two more Western Final losses in 1958 and 1959 were disappointments, too.
The team made it back to the Grey Cup in 1960 and lost. But it had grown old. Throughout the 1960s, Edmonton went through quarterbacks like disposable towels and had a decade like the one from which the Oilers are emerging. But the expectations weren’t high enough to create disappointments.
When the team finally made it back to the Grey Cup in 1973, just getting there was everything, so few were disappointed they didn’t win it. When they got back in 1974 and lost, that qualified as the first real disappointment. But they bounced back with a third straight trip to the show in 1975 and won it. The fact it was in Calgary made it even sweeter.
While losing the 1977 Grey Cup in Montreal 41-6 was a disappointment, it came in the so-called Ice Bowl, when the Alouettes found a staple gun at Olympic Stadium and fired staples into their shoes to provide traction for their players and a massive advantage.
The five-in-a-row Grey Cup dynasty of Warren Moon, Tom Wilkinson, Brian Kelly, Dan Kepley and Dave Fennell followed.
There were disappointments between then and now.
In 1989, the Eskimos celebrated their 40th season in the CFL by setting records for most wins (16), most points (644), most touchdowns (70), and most yards gained (7,951) — and lost the West Final to Saskatchewan.
Equally disappointing was losing the division final 31-30 to Saskatchewan in 1997 and having the Roughriders move into their dressing room for the Grey Cup held here that year.
Making it to their only Grey Cup at Commonwealth Stadium in 2002 and losing it on a gamble by coach Tom Higgins definitely ranks up there on the list of disappointments.
Edmonton won it in 2003 and in 2005, but had a 9-9 third-place season when Ricky Ray left to try the NFL with the New York Jets in 2004.
Of all those disappointments, it says here, none involved a team believed to have a decent chance to get to the Grey Cup that didn’t even manage to make it to the playoffs.
Those are your 2018 Eskimos that mop up their season Saturday with a meaningless game.